aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Smearing Edwards

Speaking of odious, the baseless Edwards rumors first flacked by Mickey Kaus showed up in the National Enquirer as Breaking News! yesterday, disappeared for a while this morning [Enquirer ed. tells Wonkette: “Due to a website malfunction a summary of the story went live last night for a brief time. It was then taken down because it was scheduled to be released this morning."] but is back again and smelly as ever right now.

Interesting that Edwards was the top story on Memorandum twice this morning; briefly for the Insider Advantage poll finding him leading in Iowa, then for the Enquirer trash.

I’ve been seeing people’s politics peeking through in their reactions all day; I have to wonder if I, myself, would think twice before jumping on, say, a National Enquirer story that Huckabee has a love child on the way. I like to think I would and that a search of this blog would bear me out.

On the story at hand, Ezra Klein looks to the facts as reported in the story:

Right now, the only known facts are that a pregnant former-Edwards staffer moved to North Carolina to be nearer to the man she claims to be the father of her child.  This man agrees that he is the father of her child.  But The Enquirer needs to sell copies, Mickey Kaus needs to ruin Slate’s reputation, and Andrew Sullivan doesn’t like John Edwards.  With each step away from the source, the facts of the article are further ignored, till they’re no longer even mentioned—all that’s uttered is that Edwards is embroiled in a paternity scandal.  As of now, there’s no evidence for this, and those publishing the rumors should be ashamed.  Though the shame they should feel over their journalistic practices pales in comparison to the shame they must feel over their amorous feelings towards goats.

LATER - from the father:

Statement On Behalf Of Andrew Young
December 19, 2007

As confirmed by Ms. Hunter, Andrew Young is the father of her unborn child.

Senator Edwards knew nothing about the relationship between these former co-workers, which began when they worked together in 2006.

As a private citizen who no longer works for the campaign, Mr. Young asks that the media respect his privacy while he works to make amends with his family.

Pamela J. Marple
Attorney for Mr. Young